Full Steam Ahead

Just how contentious can an ad be when it’s deemed inappropriate for digital outlets Fashion Television and Sex TV? Well, when the City of Toronto is involved, not so very contentious. This spot created by Grey Worldwide, Toronto, was to be the TV portion to a campaign that ran through the winter, mostly in the form of print ads, for Toronto Fashion Week.

Montreal- and Los Angeles-based production company Kingsborough Pictures is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against MCA/Universal City Studios and Miramax Film Corporation, alleging the defendants plagiarized the script The Dark Lady in the hit release Shakespeare in Love.

While Cinar Corp. continues to be entangled in a web of controversy, Arthur maintains its evergreen status, picking up three daytime Emmy noms for outstanding children’s animated program, outstanding achievement in music direction and composition (music director Jeffrey Zahn, composer Ray Fabi), and outstanding achievement in sound mixing – special class (Stephane Bergeron).

Montreal: Ongoing settlement payments, professional fees and current asset write-offs were among the primary factors in a $42-million net loss reported by Cinar Corp. for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 2001. The loss includes $9.9 million from the discontinued operations of Cinar Multimedia and related write-off of assets, and $32.1 million from continuing operations. Results for 2001 are fully audited. The company says no comparative information is provided as financial statements for 2000 and 1999 remain unaudited.

Montreal: Radio-Canada has advised management of the possibility of an extended strike by 1,300 members of Syndicat des Communications de Radio-Canada.

The Partners’ Film Company

Ian MacLean is a veteran broadcaster and vice-president of the Media Experts iTV Lab, a research division of Montreal-based Media Experts with the goals of understanding, exploring and anticipating the impact digital technologies will have on television and the television advertising model.

Bob Kennedy is a senior partner in Flashcut Editing, Toronto, and chair of the PVR subcommittee for CPAT.

So, they say the recession is over. And we barely felt it.

In the wake of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m left thinking about Ireland and all the Canadian entertainment companies that have set up shop there over the past several years. Well actually, what’s really got me thinking about the Celtic country is Alliance Atlantis jetting Ted Riley off to Dublin to open a new operations office – not that there’s anything peculiar about a man named Ted Riley taking up residence in Ireland. The truth is, while none of the the seniors at AAC, including Riley, were willing to talk to me about the move and the AAC spokesperson insisted that human resources and ease of travel were top of mind, it’s pretty clear that once again Ireland’s glorious tax incentives are the name of the game.

Riley relocates to Dublin